Want a bitesize look at culture in Tuscany? We hear you.
There’s a lot to see in Tuscany. Perhaps too much for the average visit. The Florentine Duomo, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, San Gimignano. The Uffizi Gallery that’s choc a bloc with painters like Botticelli and Michelangelo. But how exactly did Tuscany get to become such an important centre of art and culture?
Tuscany the centre of art and learning
In the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance, Tuscany was a hotspot for arts and learning. Important schools of sculpture, architecture and painting developed from the 11th century onwards. And those schools went on to influence western art and architecture for centuries afterwards. Thanks to Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the language spoken in Tuscany became the literary language of Italy, and their work, particularly’s Dante’s epic poem “The Divine Comedy” is one of the world’s greatest works of literature.
The Renaissance in Florence
The changes that we associate with the Renaissance first began in the Italian city of Florence, and permeated every part of its culture. From the 16th century, Florence was the focal point of intellectual and artistic life. The city’s economy, its writers, painters, architects, and philosophers all made the city a model of what the Renaissance came to represent.
UNESCO Heritage Sites:
Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Val d’Orcia, Pienza, Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli, Medici Villas and gardens.
Curious about this wonderful region? Find out more interesting facts about Tuscany.
